Vin Diesel will receive in the neighborhood of $10 million to star in Revolution Studios' urban spy thriller XXX for director Rob Cohen and producer Neal Moritz. Production is slated to begin by year's end for a July 26, 2002, release date.

XXX reteams the director, producer and actor, who worked together on Universal Pictures' The Fast and the Furious. Moritz and Cohen also worked together on Universal's The Skulls and the HBO feature The Rat Pack.

Director Rob Cohen told The Hollywood Reporter, "The creative synergy that made the current movie (The Fast and the Furious) happen was something I really wanted to continue. When you get the creative balance between a director, producer and actor where everybody is so responsive to each other, that is so hard to find."

Written by Rich Wilkes (Airheads), the project is described as centering on a tough extreme-sports player who is co-opted by the government to infiltrate a crime ring.

According to Cohen, there was no one better for the role than Diesel. "Just like you can't have Dr. No without Sean Connery, you can't have XXX without Vin," Cohen said. "What Sean was to the '60s, Vin is to the 2000s. In the Kennedy era, Sean was an image of masculinity, charm, vulnerability and sexiness. Vin represents that for this new millennium.

"This project gives us the opportunity to work with a company like Revolution, which is not like a regular studio," Cohen said. "It's the 'nonstudio' studio, and this is a 'non-spy movie' spy movie."